![]() ![]() ![]() The plot draws readers along at the same time that the details and vivid writing encourage rereading. Flashbacks smartly create a portrait of the lost family: an iconoclastic father, artistic mother and two independent daughters. From the first page, the sense of crisis and the lucid, honest voice of the 17-year-old narrator pull the reader in, and the fight for survival adds an urgent edge to her coming-of-age story. They remember their mother's warnings about the nearby forest, but as the crisis deepens, bears and wild pigs start to seem less dangerous than humans. In Northern California, 32 miles from the closest town, two orphaned teenage sisters ration a dwindling supply of tea bags and infested cornmeal. The tale is set in the near future: electricity has failed, mail delivery has stopped and looting and violence have destroyed civil order. Hegland's powerfully imagined first novel will make readers thankful for telephones and CD players while it underscores the vulnerability of lives dependent on technology. ![]()
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